Ore grinder



Aug. 29, 1939. J. YOUNGMAN x-:T A1.

ORE GRINDER Filed April 28, 1958 Patented Ang. 29, 1939 John Younxman and Harry B.; Culp.

County, Wash.

application aprss, 193s, sensi No. 204,887

4Giaims.

This invention relatesto an ore grinder and has as oneof its 'objects to provide agrinder including a casing into which ore and water may be fed and the 'ore ground by action of chains s strung between disks carried by a rotary shaft. It will thus be seen that the ore may be reduced to a fine muck and also stirred or agitated by the chains so that the finely ground rock will be brought to the surface and floated out of the lo grinding chamber while the heavy metal will Abe precipitated to the bottom of the casing and pass out through an outlet opening in the bottom thereof.

Another object of the invention is to so mount 1g the chains that they will extend in a diagonal or spiral path between the disks to which they are secured at their ends and thus cause a good stirring action to take place as the shaft is rotated and the chains grind the ore.

zo Another object of the invention is to provide the trough with a receiving chamber into which the ground rock and metal is discharged, the receiving chamber having a pocket at its bottom into which the heavy metal accumulates and at 25 its top being formed with an overflow through which water and light finely ground rock passes. It will thus be seen that the receiving chamber constitutes a settling chamber as well as an overflow chamber and any metal which may pass into this chamber with the finely ground rock may be precipitated therein and drop into the pocket at its bottom, together with the metal which passes through the discharge opening at the bottom of the grinding chamber or casing.

35 Another object of the invention is to provide means operating in the settling chamber to thoroughly agitate the contents thereof and assist precipitation of metal to the bottom of the chamber for passage therefrom into the metal receiving 40 pocket.

Another object 4of the invention is to so form the casing that the upper portion may be easily removed when necessary, the removable upper section thereof being ilrmly secured to the lower u section but capable of being easily and quickly removed and then replaced and secured.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. l is a side elevation of the improved grinder.

Fig, 2 is a sectional view taken vertically through the grinder longitudinally thereof.

Fig.' 3 is a view taken along the line 3-3 of 111g. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 4 4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is afragmentary perspective view of a portion of the grinder.

The casing l of this ore grinder is of cylindrical 5 formation and consists of upper and lower sections 2 and 3 having marginal flanges I through which bolts 5 are passed to securely but detachably hold the upper section in place. The casing extends substantially horizontally but at a down- -ward incline toward its rear end, as shown in Figs. l' and 2, and in order to support the casing thereI have been provided main supports or standards 6 rising from side portions of the base 1 and auxiliary supports 8 extending upwardly 15 from lower ends of the main supports and engaging the lower section of the casing above the main supports, as shown in Fig. 3. Other standards 8 extend upwardly from the base in front of the casing and are provided with bearings i0 at 20 their upper ends to rotatably mount a shaft Ii carrying a pulley i2 intermediate its length so that, rotary motion may be imparted to the shaft through the medium of a belt from a suitable source of power such as a motor mounted in a convenient location.

Bearings i3 and i4 are mounted upon front and rear end walls l5 and i6 of the lower casing section to rotatably mount the main shaft Il of the grinder, and upon referring to Figa l and 2, it will be seen that this shaft extends longitudinally through the grinding chamber IB with its front end portion projecting forwardly from the casing and carrying a gear i9 meshing with the gear 20 carried by the drive shaft" il and its rear end portion projecting from the rear end of the casing into the discharge chamber or settling chamber 2| and carrying an agitating blade 22 which turns with the shaft in the direction indicated by the arrows in Figs. 2 and 3, and has its blades so o pitched that during rotation of the shaft and agitator, the contents of the discharge chamber will be thoroughly agitated to separate the heavy metal from the finely ground rock and the finely ground rock and water in the chamber driven toward the rear end wall I6 of the casing to permit complete separation o f the metal from the rock before the light rock is carried out through the overflow passage 23 formed in the outer end wall 24 of the separating chamber. The 50 discharge chamber or separating chamber extends the full width and depth of the lower section 3 of the grinding chamber or casing l and at its bottom is formed with a depending pocket 25 closed at its lower end by a removable cap 26 55 which is threaded to walls of the pocket. A number of small openings 21 are formed in the lower end of the end wall i6 of thebottom-section of the casing so that ground metal may pass through them from the grinding chamber into the separating chamber and near its upper end of the end wall I6 is formed with outlet openings into which the nipples 28 of discharge pipes 29 are screwed so that water and light material may be discharged from the grinding chamber into the mixing chamber. 'I'he discharge pipes extend downwardly toward the bottom of the separating chamber and as the mixture of water and light material carried thereby will be acted upon and urged toward the grinding chamber by the agitator 22 and the finely ground metal carried out of the grinding chamber with the water the rock will be separated from the light material and settle to the bottom of the mixing chamber wh'le the light rock will be carried upwardly with the water and pass out through the overflow 23. The

precipitated metal, together with the metal which passes through the openings 21, will drop into the pocket and may be removed therefrom when the cap 26 is unscrewed from the pocket.

The grinding means in the casing i consists of a plurality of chains 30 which extend longitudinally of the grinding chamber between disks 3| fixed to the main shaft I1 adjacent ends of the casing. The ends of the chains are engaged with hooks 32 which have threaded shanks passed through the disks and secured by nuts 33 and the chains extend diagonally or spirally about the shaft l1 between the disks so that as the shaft is turned the chains will move diagonally across the ribs 34 of the grinding plate 35 at the bottom of the casing section 3 as well as having a diagonal movement downwardly and upwardly in the grinding chamber. This will cause a good grinding action to take place between the chains and the ribs to grind the lumps of ore which are fed into the grinding chamber through the hopper 36 having its neck 31 projecting inwardly through the top of the casing section 2. The fact that the chains move diagonally while passing vertically toward and away from the plate 35, will also serve to stir the contents of the grinding chamber and cause the ground material to be separated from the lumps so that heavy metal will fall to the bottom of the chamber and pass along the same to the outlet openings 21 while the light rock will be carried upwardly and form a muck or mixture of water and ne rock which will pass out through the discharge pipes 29 into the overflow chamber 2l where it will be acted upon by the agitator 22 and ne metal separated from the muck and fall to the bottom of this chamber while the light rock will pass out with the water through the overflow 23. Water is fed into the mixing chamber through the pipe 38 from a suitable source of supply and a valve 39 is provided for controlling flow of water into the mixing chamber.

When this grinder is in use, water is fed into the grinding chamber until it reaches a depth at which it will flow out through the outlet pipes 29 and the valve then adjusted to permit slow iiow or water may be intermittently fed into the grinding chamber. Lumps of ore are fed into the grinding chamber from the hopper through its neck 31 and, as the shaft i1 is turned, the chains and the ribs 34 of the plate 35 will act upon the ore to grind it and form fine grains or particles of rock while the metal will gather upon the plate and move along the same tothe outlet openings 21 through which it passes into the separating chamber 2i. As the. links of the chains are provided with longitudinally extending ribs 40 which are formed of very hard metal and the ribs 34 of the plate are also formed of very hard metal, a good grinding action will take place as the chains move diagonally across the ribs and the rock 'will be ground into fine particles which will mix with water and form a muck of sulcient thinness to flow out through the outlet pipes 29 into the separating chamber. Provision of .the ribs upon the plate and the chain also serves to prevent the plate and the links of the chain from being quickly worn through during use of the grinder. Marginal edges of the disks also have hard metal welded to them, as shown at 4I to protect them from excessive wear. A baille plate 42 serving to prevent clogging of space between the ribbed plate and the disk at the lower end of the grinding chamber, extends diagonally from this disk and is formed with teeth 43 along its lower edge. As the disk turns with the shaft, rock and large particles of metal will be scraped away and thus provide ample space for the small particles of metal to pass under the disk toward the outlet openings 21 in the rear end wall of the lower casing section. The metal which enters the separating chamber through the openings 21 passes directly to the pocket 25 and since the agitator 22 stirs the mixture of water and ground rock delivered into the separating chamber through the pipes 29 and urges it toward the end wall of the casing before it has an opportunity to pass out through the overow 23 and fine metal mixed with the water and fine rock will be loosened and drop to the bottom of the separating chamber for passage into the pocket before the water and fine rock passes out through the overflow. It will thus be seen that all of the previous metal will be recovered from the ore and gathered in the pocket 25 from which it may be removed by unscrewing the cap 26 at the bottom of the pocket.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is:

l. In an ore grinder, a grinding chamber having means for feeding ore and water into the same, a separating chamber communicating with one end of said grinding chamber, said separating chamber having metal gathering means at its bottom and an overflow, a rotary shaft extending longitudinally through said grinding chamber with its end portions journaled through end walls of the grinding chamber and one end portion extending into said separating chamber, grinding means carried by said shaft within the grinding chamber, and an agitator on the separating chamber having a hub fixed to the projecting end portion of said shaft a-nd blades radlating from said shaft and pitched to impel water and ground ore toward the grinding chamber.

2. In an ore grinder, a grinding chamber having means for feeding ore and water into the same, a saparating chamber at one end of said grinding chamber communicating with the said end of the grinding chamber through an end wall thereof, a rotary shaft extending longitudinally through said grinding chamber and projecting into the separating chamber, disks carried by said shaft within said grinding chamber, anchoring members carried by Said disk and spaced from each other circumferentially thereof, chains extendingbetween said disks diagonally of said shaft and secured at their ends to the anchoring members, and an agitator carried by said shaft within the' separating chamber.

3. In an ore grinder, a grinding chamber having means for feeding ore and water into the 5 same, a separating chamber at one end of said grinding chamber communicating with the said end of the grinding chamber through an end wall thereof, a rotary shaft extending longitudinally through said grinding chamber and projecting into the separating chamber, disks carried by said shaft within said grinding chamber, anchoring members carried by said disk and spaced from each other circumferentially thereof and each consisting of a hook and a threaded l5 stem passing through a disk and carrying a securing nut, chains extending diagonally between said disks with their ends engaged with the hooks of said anchoring members, and an agitator carried by said shaft within the separating chamber.

4. In an ore grinder, a grinding chamber having means for feeding ore and water into the same, a separating chamber at one end of said grinding chamber communicating with the said end of the grinding chamber through an end wall thereof, a rotary shaft extending longitudinally through said grinding chamber and projecting into the separating chamber, an agitator carried by said shaft within said separating chamber, disks carried by said shaft within said grinding chamber, anchoring members carried by said disks and spaced from each other circumferentially thereof, chains extending between said disks and having their ends engaged with said anchoring members, and a plate in the bottom of said grinding chamber, said plate having longitudinally extending ribs, and said chains having their links formed with longitudinally extending ribs.

JOHN YOUNGMAN. HARRY R. CULP. 

